Meteor
by Nytro
Summary: They didn't stop the vaccine. The Croatoan virus spirals out of control and they watch their world crumble to dust around them. Some things are too broken to fix. (The events leading up to Sam saying yes in the Endverse timeline. Samifer. For the FYSL Hotter Than Hell fanwork exchange. Spoilers for later seasons of SPN!)
1. April, 2009

_**April, 2009**_

It all starts with a pig.

Specifically, one pig in a market in Veracruz, Mexico: an ill pig, though not that ill, but the mutations that occur in this particular pig spark a trail of snowballing panic and destruction that will eventually end the world.

Though to be fair on the pig, it isn't at fault - no, it's hard not to develop a pandemic level disease when you have Pestilence singing nursery rhymes in your ear and lauding you for being the vessel of destruction and the reason why, even since ancient times, pork has been unclean to eat.

And so the swine flu pandemic sweeps the world, jumping borders like they're nothing, making front pages every day with the dozens and even hundreds of deaths that this particular virus has caused. Nobody stops to question why it's in the headlines since the death toll isn't that many, because War has always been adept at the propaganda and fear mongering needed to bend a hysterical public outcry to his will.

So when news breaks of a developed vaccine that will protect from this deadly outbreak, it's the one thing that half the population wants the very most. Famine has them lining up for hours outside schools, outside hospitals, outside any one of the distribution points that have sprung up to satisfy this crushing demand for safety. Within days millions are vaccinated, all across the world, in rich countries and in poor.

And Death? Death stands by the sidelines, waiting patiently for the job he will soon be busy at, as the time counts down to the instant sixty-six hours have passed from the first doses given.

Sam and Dean, preoccupied with figuring out Gabriel's last message and utterly disinterested in phony pandemic scare stories by tabloids that have nothing whatsoever to do with the supernatural line of work, don't notice anything amiss until it's too late.

By then, it's far too late.


	2. August, 2009 - Day 1

p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"August, 2009/span/strong/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Get down!"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Dean ducks as Sam's knife slices its way expertly over his head and embeds itself in the flesh of the croat shambling up behind him. He darts forward to escape the shower of blood and Sam switches places, already pulling out a second dagger to hack and slash until the damn thing is dead. They've universally agreed that Sam should take close quarters combat, his blood giving immunity from the virus, and Dean should hang back with the biggest gun they can find ammo for and slug the things from afar./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"They're somewhere in Wisconsin, or maybe a nearby state, because that's where they were hunting demons when the world went to pot and they stopped paying attention to road signs. It's high noon outside, but they're running about in caves with flashlights strapped to their heads because these tunnels made EMF go haywire and they think there's a nest of them holed up somewhere close. They've managed to clear the neighboring town, slaughtering humanoids left and right until all trace of the infection is wiped out, but more come in night raids when the watchmen aren't paying attention. This is their attempt to stop those raids. So far, it's working./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"One dead, shot in the head. Two, three, four, five. They just keep coming, and it's no use keeping a tally, but they do anyways because comparing kill counts is one of the few remaining sources of satisfaction in this new, hellish world./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Over there, last ones!" Sam points and Dean takes aim, pumping the creatures full of iron as his brother watches his back, knife ready and waiting in case there's any that they have missed./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"And then, finally, the cave falls silent but for the echo of heavy breathing. They're both straining their ears to hear the sounds of other croats, but it seems like they got them all./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Dean slings the gun back across his shoulders and steps back from the glint of the spreading blood pool, casting his head left and right so that the flashlight beam strikes all sections of the shadows. None of the bodies are moving, and these guys don't seem to get playing dead./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""We're done here?" Sam asks./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Yeah."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""We should call Cas, then. Let him know we're both okay."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"So Dean pulls out his phone where he has an angel on speed dial, and finds that even in the sewers he's getting signal. It's a good sign that all the supernatural creatures in this area really have kicked the bucket./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"It rings once, twice, six times, then flicks over to the answer message./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Voicemail. Hey, Cas, just wanted you to know we're safe and sound and the world just got a few croats lighter. I know you're probably in the middle of something, but call us back when you get this message so we can check you're okay. Bye."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Does Cas even know how to access those?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Dean shrugs. "Not my problem. Let's go clean up and restock on ammo."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"It is surprising and at the same time rather disturbing just how many people have been keeping supplies in their basements to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. All those books and movies have done the world a massive service, because when it finally hits that everyone who had dosed up on the vaccine was flipping there are at least five guys in every town handing out weapons and food to the terrified civilian population./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Sam and Dean are assumed to be just another couple of those guys, albeit with some specialist information about how to kill and weaken the things that nobody questions as long as the methods work. With the help of a terrified priest they have managed to bless the lake that feeds the town's water supply, which seems to help since the people they have on watch report that the croats have slowed down and are showing symptoms of dehydration, no longer moving about in the day. Thank God for sweltering summers./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"They're in an abandoned house they commandeered a few weeks ago, taking turns in the bathroom with a sponge and a bucket of hot water to get off the grime of that day's hunt, when Dean's phone chirps merrily. Sam picks up because he's closest./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Cas?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Sam? Is Dean-"/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""He's fine. Where are you?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Asia. A strain has mutated to spread in birds, and my garrison has been assigned to defense of the Singapore strait."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Sam sighs in relief, because even if Cas is half the world away he's still at least on Earth. From what they've managed to prise out of the angel through awkward silences and refusals to talk, plus other information sources he is never going to mention to anyone, their planet is still a relatively safe spot even with the zombie outbreak. In the battlefields of Hell lie terrors not even a warrior angel can survive./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Dean comes out the bathroom wrapped in grimy towels, so Sam puts the phone on speaker./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Cas, that you?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Dean?"/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Alright, great, I was worried for a minute there. Look, we're done in this town. Any chance you could... zap us over somewhere else? Somewhere we could be of use?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""No. I cannot abandon my post. I shouldn't even be talking to you right now, not with my orders and so many lives at stake."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Screw your orders, Cas, since when did you follow them anyway?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I... I can't. Not again, I just can't. It isn't worth the risk to disobey. I have to redeem myself if I am to be worthy of the blessing I have been granted."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""That's a load of crap and you know it."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"The call ends with a click and Sam huffs, annoyed./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Dean, stop it with your spats. We have bigger fish to fry than what Cas is up to right now."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Oh, so now you're telling me to suck up and accept it? What, be grateful? Sam, you know exactly why the angels pulled out the stops on this one and I thought we agreed that this was never happening. No matter what."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""I know, Dean, and it's not like I would ever think about it, but... they're helping. Cas has his Grace back and it's just what he wanted so, well, leave him be. He's flown the nest."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Just shut up, Sammy. I don't want to hear this right now."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Dean stalks off to get dressed and Sam flops out on the tattered old bed because he needs sleep and the sooner he goes the sooner he can wake up./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Dean's right. The angels may have stepped up to the plate in spectacular fashion, launching determined assaults all over the globe to control and prevent the spread of the Croatoan virus, but there's no way their motives are anything but pure. They say they reinstated Castiel because all firepower was needed for the battle and he had the makings of a leader, but that wasn't it either. All they are doing, by trying to mop up the mess they'd been too late to prevent the horsemen from making, is painting themselves as the good guys. Worming their way into, specifically, Dean's good books./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"They could not care less about the humans they say they're sworn to defend; they just want Michael to have his vessel./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"The worst thing is, it's working. Castiel's happy with his second chance and Sam can tell how that tears at Dean's confidence that they're doing the right thing by holding out while the world ends around them. While the angels battle desperately to stall the inevitable decline of humanity, they give more time for the choice to be made. Because in their eyes this is the only possible way to win./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Sam would never consider saying yes, but with every passing day he starts thinking more and more that Dean should./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Sammy?" Sam snaps out of his thoughts to see Dean in the doorway with a bottle of Jack Daniels. "Got it for free out the store, since the world's ending and money don't matter a thing. You want some?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""I can't even begin to describe how bad an idea it is for me to get drunk, Dean. You know that."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Come on, we've got five hours at least before bedtime and I want a partner to waste away my sorrows with."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""No! This isn't some joke or rule I can bend - I cannot go to sleep with alcohol in my system. Not any amount. Just no."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""We could try getting you blackout drunk. Might work."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Dean, sleeping pills didn't work. Heck, general anesthetic didn't work, and there is no way I am doing anything to lower my inhibitions when I'll have Lucifer in my ear. Drop it; go drink yourself silly if you like, but do it alone. I'm turning in early."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Woah, woah, hold up." Dean sets down the bottle. "Early? Why? What happened to the five day long stay-awake-athon you went on two weeks ago? Why are you so keen to go to Nod all of a sudden?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Because it's worse, okay? It's worse when I stay up; it means I'm weaker when I finally do fall asleep. He's stronger. And it lasts longer too, and I'm not sure I can last through another night like that one. I figured I should get it over and done with while I've got full reserves of willpower. So yeah, I'm going to sleep. Night, Dean."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Dean sighs. "Night, Sammy. Same as always?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""Yeah. See you in the morning."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;""See you. We've got a horseman to hunt down, so you'd better make sure you make it. Stay strong. Don't give in."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Sam slips himself between the blanket and the mattress, hugs the pillow, and shifts into a comfortable position. "Wouldn't dream of it."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Dean can see the very second when the tension slips out of his brother's face and Sam's breathing eases to a deeper rhythm. It takes barely a minute; as hunters they have both mastered the art of taking quick rest breaks in any surroundings to summon energy for whatever must be done next. This sleep break, though, will be anything but quick. It will last anywhere between eight and ten hours, and Dean's hoping for eight, whereupon Sam will shoot up to a sitting position with a scream dying on his lips and then sob into Dean's shoulder for nearly half an hour after that./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"When Sam went without sleep for five days, it lasted sixteen hours and Dean dozed off while waiting for his brother to get back. He awoke to Sam shaking uncontrollably and hugging him, whispering broken apologies in his ear, and from what Dean could piece together it came close. Very close./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"Dean brushes the hair out of Sam's face and contemplates how peaceful his brother looks at times like these. With Satan torturing him in hellfire - Sammy has never once said a word of what goes on during his dreams but Dean has experience enough from his time on the rack - you would think at least some of the distress would filter through to disturbed physical rest. But Sam's body, at least, is calm and dead to the world (they've tested trying to wake him up around the halfway mark but it's impossible to disrupt this sleep). He looks five years younger, with the carefree demeanor he'd had before Jess had been lost./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"It makes Dean's heart ache, and it only aches worse when he reminds himself that the reason Sam can be like this is that his mind is squirreled away on a different plane of reality, having a one-on-one carving session with the Devil. That only drives home just how unattainable happiness is for his baby brother./p 


	3. August, 2009 - Night 1

p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Hello, Sam."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Lucifer pats the space on the couch next to him and Sam sits down. If he refuses, as he has done several times before, then Lucifer will get up and take him by the hand to lead him back to the sofa and Sam's body will blindly obey, stripped momentarily of all agency. He would rather do without such reminders of Lucifer's total mastery over this dream world, and it's best not to irritate the being in total control of the environment around you./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Lucifer." He acknowledges the greeting with a curt nod and doesn't say more - he's not silent, though he was at first, for he quickly realized that silence is a weakness that hands over all power to the one willing to do the talking. But neither does he ever pretend that there's anything he wants to say./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""How was your day? I can sense you're not hurt, so I assume that the hunt went well."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Well enough. We think we got all of them, but it will take another day to be sure before we can move on."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Sounds interesting. Certainly more interesting than mine, though they always are. Tell me everything."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Really? You want to know?" This happens rarely, and the offer is always immediately withdrawn if he declines or refuses to speak, but every second spent describing his exploits is a second not spent on other things so he has learned to accept the chance when it comes up./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Of course I do, Sam. I care about everything you do, and since you do not reciprocate the link hearing your stories is the best I can achieve."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"So Sam tells him every detail he can dredge up from the depths of his mind about what went on today. He describes the verdant green of the scenery, the hanging dust motes caught by the beam of the flashlight, the glint of the blood pool as it spread outwards. He confesses insecurities and fears that his brother was nearly killed today, and relief that he had been able to notice in time and issue a warning. The only details he leaves out are the ones that could identify their location, like the shape of landmarks, the names of towns, or the writing on road signs./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He speaks as slowly as possible, pausing after every sentence to run through the next one in his head. It's partly to edit out any identifying data, but mostly because he's stalling for every second of time. Lucifer knows this, of course, but he's willing to pretend as long as Sam doesn't stretch it out too much./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"It's over an hour later when Sam finishes - or, at least, it feels like an hour even though he has no watch and no reliable sense of time in this world. He gets to the end of a sentence and finds he has nothing more to tell, and he briefly considers making something up but discards the idea immediately - the Prince of Lies, though he says he will always tell Sam the truth, can spot a lie with ease./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""...So that's how my day was."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""You tell it so vividly, Sam; the images are such that I might have been by your side the whole time. You are a talented storyteller." Praise from a person Sam knew would only speak the truth made pride swell up in him, which frightened him because he shouldn't care and pride was, after all, a sin./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I'm not that talented. There are thousands of writers way better than me, and you'd know that if you'd read them. Humans are just good at telling stories."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I admit, yes, you are. It comes bundled in with the selfishness and greed, entwined so deep I can't manage to twist it out to isolation. If I could, I would remake your race in a better form, but that is yet beyond me. Later, maybe. For now, Sam, would you like to learn about my day?"/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""No." A soft chuckle from the being next to him. He always gave that answer./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""But you've told me so much about yours. It wouldn't be fair for me to not return the favor."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Sam doesn't respond apart from turning his head away to bury it in the armrest of the sofa and feeling tears leak into the cloth. This is it. He can't spin out more time./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Ssh, Sam. Don't cry. I promise you it won't hurt a bit." And it doesn't. It never does. When the touch to his forehead comes, two fingers tapping his temple, there is no pain - just a sense of the world falling away as Sam is swept up in a tide of memory./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He's in a field, in Nick's body (which is wrong wrong wrong he needs Sam), talking to a demon about war plans and strategies as the sun shines high overhead. The demon's eyes are not black nor red nor any other demonic color, but with the vision of an angel he can behold the grotesque spectral form that inhabits the body. Disgusting. Flawed. Murderous./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The scene shifts, ground bleeding into sky and now he's not in a vessel at all, not on the human plane of reality but somewhere else, flashes of all wavelengths of light scattering around him as the angels notice who he is and try to flee. Lucifer is beautiful and terrible on the battlefield, a force unstoppable by any but Michael himself, but Michael refuses to fight in anything but vessels as it has been foretold so Lucifer is unmatched in power and skill./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He's swooping and darting and shining, a master of flight, slashing open wounds in wings and sending the angels shooting like meteors to the ground: thousands of demons wait below, a hivemind of ants ready to capture and finish them off. Chains criss-cross the hazy air and tortured souls scream from among them. Sulfur crystallizes among clouds and acidifies the air until breathing itself is a torture. But Lucifer does not breathe here, his true form utterly alien to the act with no need for oxygen, and more angels fall from the sky./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Another shift, this time back to Earth and a form that every sense screams is imperfect and not right, not Sam, watching the sun rise over the arctic ice and the aurora borealis stretch across the heavens. He reaches out with his arm and his mind to freeze the sea once more, bringing a second winter to this land in order to replace so much of what has been lost in the past few years. Cold anger clouds his emotions, and hate for the beings that did this. He always knew they would ruin God's creation, and he has now lived long enough to see his predictions come true./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"With as much restored as he can restore today, Lucifer jumps again to skim across the glittering waves of an ocean thousands of miles away. Even here, far from land, traces of pollutants hang in the water but the beings here are resilient. They will survive, and they have survived until now. He sends a call in Enochian through the water and hears each creature respond in its own way, reassuring him that they have not yet been lost./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Not yet. And now that the humans are dying, not ever./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Through this all Sam strains to maintain some sense of himself, but the experiences of an angel are too powerful and his identity is lost among the sensations. It's not Lucifer, a separate being, that does these things and thinks these thoughts. It's him./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"When he told the story of his day, Sam omitted details to protect his location. Lucifer responds in kind, with faces here and there blurred, or names spoken but incomprehensible. It's these little things that every once in a while, for seconds at a time, allow Sam to remember who he is and give some resistance to the tide of memories. But he achingly knows every motivation for what Lucifer is doing because the thoughts there are wide open to him, and he knows they are nothing but the truth./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"The reasons why the world is ending are a mixture of the purest love and the purest hate, fire and ice, and the entire reason why Lucifer comes to him in dreams isn't to torture consent out of Sam. It's to make him understand why./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Why, by refusing to allow the Devil in, Sam is shouldering the remorse and blame for every terrible act his race has committed. It shatters his confidence in a way no pain or suffering ever could./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"When it stops, ending with the creation of this room to wait for Sam's arrival, he is clutching Lucifer like a teddy bear and heaving sobs into his shoulder. Lucifer is stroking his hair and whispering comforting words to him./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"He waits, patiently, for Sam to regain some semblance of control. Sam does, after a while, detaching from Lucifer and scampering to the other side of the sofa, hugging only himself and glaring a pathetic glare. Only then does Lucifer ask, and Sam once again says no, so Lucifer sighs and nods as the room falls away and it's just the two of them against blankness./span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""It's nearly time for you to wake up, Sam. Your brother is waiting for you."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Don't ever say you know what Dean's doing. You don't. You can't find us."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""I think I could, if I wanted to." Lucifer tilts his head and smiles. "My network has resources that stretch everywhere. If I so chose, I could command them to locate you and you would not stand a chance. But I won't."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Because you want me to come to you myself."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""Exactly, Sam. You're learning. I could capture you by force, but why would that be of use to me? It would be a betrayal of the trust we have together. So I'll only come for you if you tell me where you are."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"Sam shakes his head. "Never."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;""We'll see. Now, it's time for us to spend yet another day apart."/span/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #001521;"span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"There's a wrenching in Sam's gut, a horrible twisting like something is ripping him apart from the inside. He screams, unable to help it, because his body is trying to tell him that he can't go back, isn't meant to go back, that he shouldn't ever be apart from his angel and damn the consequences. Lucifer waves goodbye sadly and overpowers the feeling, snapping the tentative bond like shattering glass, and the pain of leaving is the worst physical torment of the whole night. He feels the loss as a burning iron poker in his heart and screams, and screams, and screams-/span/p 


	4. August, 2009 - Day 2 - Morning

-And Sam shoots up to a sitting position, a scream dying on his lips, to see the summer sunlight filtering through the room's window, very early morning, and Dean sitting at the foot of his bed with the bottle of Jack Daniels and two glasses.

"Welcome back, Sammy."

Sam lunges for him, eyes already puffy with tears of remorse and relief, because he will never be able to articulate into words the comfort he gains from having Dean close by. After a night spent in the frozen company of the Devil his brother will always be waiting to welcome him back with open arms, no matter how shattered he is inside. He looks into Dean's cheery smile and remembers again what he's fighting for. The selflessness and optimism shown there is enough to restore his faith in humanity for another fifteen hours.

Dean awkwardly pats Sam's back and then reaches around to pour out the alcohol. "You want some? It'll be burned off by tonight, don't worry. Thought you might need it."

Sam accepts and raises the glass to his lips. His hands are shaking but not too badly, and he notes that the lack of smudges or grime means his brother actually did the washing up for once.

"How long?" He asks.

"Nine and a half hours. Actually," Dean checks his watch, "Now that I think about it, closer to ten. It was a long one this time." Sam can tell by the tone of his voice that he's worried about the length. Usually, the longer the time spent asleep the worse Sam is at the end of it.

"It wasn't too bad." And it hadn't been. Between the hour or so spent stalling at the beginning and the relatively tame flashes of memory, last night had easily made it into Sam's top ten list of easiest nights since Satan had started walking the earth.

The worst night, by far, was after five days straight of caffeine and sleep deprivation when Lucifer pounced on him as soon as he appeared in the dream room and subjected him to a sixteen hour long run of cherry-picked memories showcasing the worst of what humanity has to offer. He was angry at Sam for staying away so long and neglecting his physical health, and Sam could not muster up the willpower to fight.

It was one after another after another, murderers and rapists and liars and thieves and traitors that Lucifer had smote during those days while venting his frustration. Each one deserving of a horrible, torturous death and each one receiving quick, merciful oblivion. Each one begging for their life, trying to make deals, or drunk on their pride trying to bend the Devil to their will. After each one Lucifer would stop, pull him out of the link into the dreamscape, and ask Sam why he was defending a species that could produce so many monstrous beings when he was so dedicated to hunting monsters. Sam would blink at him numbly, not even sure what to say anymore, so Lucifer's eyes would flash with anger and again into a memory they'd go.

By the end of it he was broken, all the rational arguments for why he shouldn't give in torn to pieces by the onslaught, and he was waiting for Lucifer to ask the question so he could say yes, the first word he'd say that night, and end it all. But Lucifer put a hand on Sam's shoulder, shook his head, _apologized_, and sent him back without ever doing so.

Three seconds later when he saw Dean, who had sprawled out asleep while waiting for him to get back, he changed his mind and snapped back to reality, horrified in the realization that only the Devil's good graces had saved him this time.

"Did you get any sleep, Dean?"

"Me? Yeah, I turned in not long after you did. Got a good seven hours of shut-eye before the alarm. So you're okay, then? How did it go?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Dean has spent years on end strapped to iron chains in Hell - Sam knew all about them, having seen them through Lucifer's eyes often enough - kept in excruciating agony by Alistair, and it took decades for him to break. What would he think if he knew that, in just a few hours every night, Sam is brought to the brink of giving in by the simple sharing of memories, no torture required? He wouldn't be disgusted, because Dean could never be disgusted at his little brother, but he'd be disappointed and there's no way he'd understand. Better to keep up the pretense that the Devil was using blood and hellfire, allowing Sam to maintain his dignity.

"You want more whisky?" Sam has drained the glass, so he nods and lets Dean pour him out another double shot along with his own. They down them together, and the horrors of the night begin to fade from Sam's mind beneath a haze of morning sunlight, alcohol, and brotherly companionship.

* * *

After the allotted half-hour of mucking about and doing fuck all, it's time to get up, make contact with the makeshift town defenders and let them know that they've busted out the nest and will be moving on soon. So they get dressed, pull boots on and are just about to head out the door when Dean's phone rings.

"Is that Cas?" Sam asks as Dean pulls it out and checks the caller ID.

"Unknown number, it's not him. Hello?" He hasn't put it on speaker but Sam can just about make out a guy's voice on the other end. "Chuck? Man, I'm glad to hear from you." He motions at Sam to leave for the meeting, and Sam shakes his head as a not-without-you gesture. Dean responds by tapping his watch and mouthing '_You were asleep longer than I'd thought you would be.'_ It's a low blow and Sam knows it, but that doesn't stop the guilt welling up inside him so he heads off, hoping Dean will catch up with him soon rather than leave him to deal with the townspeople alone.

"See, it's weird, but you called me at about the best possible time. I was thinking about phoning you."

"_I know, I saw it."_

"Then you know what I want to ask, right?"

"_Yes. But I want to respect Sam's privacy, so I'm afraid I can't tell you much of what goes on."_

"So why call and then tell me to send Sammy off so we can talk alone?"

"_Because I can tell you a bit, and enough to know that he shouldn't find out you know. It's not a physical thing, Dean. Lucifer's not using pain, or deprivation, or even desire. Sam is ashamed of telling you because he doesn't think he should be so weak to something he doesn't see as torture."_

"But that's bogus. Why would psychological stuff be any less torture? I've seen the effect it has - Lucifer's upped the heat on this one. He's worse than Alistair. Heck, even in Hell they appreciated the value of a few good mind games for wearing you down. What's he doing? Is he making Sam watch while he kills people?" That was a favorite on the rack. Dean had, at different points throughout his stay, been all three of the players.

"_Like what Gabriel did at the Mystery Spot? No, nothing much like that, although in some ways it's similar. I shouldn't say anything more. Sorry."_

"No problem. Where have you been these past few weeks? We tried your phone but it made an ear-piercing screech at us and we thought you'd been kidnapped."

"_I was kidnapped. Just by Michael's side rather than Lucifer's. I've been in... quarantine, you might say. They don't want their prophet catching the virus. I managed to escape for a bit and find a phone booth, but they'll catch up to me in about half an hour and then probably put me on lockdown. This might be the last time we talk in a while."_

"Ouch. Do you want us to come to the rescue?"

"_No. I'm not sure where I am and you have more important things to do. That's the main reason I called. You have to track down Pestilence."_

"Why?"

"_He's the one that developed this virus. If you kill him, it might cause a self-destruct throughout the genetic code and wipe out all the zombies."_

"Might? You're saying you don't know? I thought you wrote this stuff!"

"_I didn't develop the lore as well as I should have, okay? I was too busy typing out the main storyline and now that's all gone to pot. I wasn't going to mention this, but I knew how I was going to end it way back when you first found me. It wasn't that happy an ending for you two, especially for Sam, but in the grand scheme of things not many people died and all the loose ends got wrapped up. It was pretty much the perfect ending."_

Dean looks out the window, where smashed glass litters the street and haunting graffiti is sprayed on the walls of boarded-up houses. "This is the perfect ending? What, are you mad?"

"_No! See, I never told you how it would end for fear you'd use knowledge of the future to alter the ending to try to save Sam. So I never bothered to tell you about Pestilence, figuring my visions about you fighting him before he released the virus would come true and everything would be fine, because that's how it always worked before. But they didn't. I - I must have done something wrong. Maybe I was supposed to tell you. But continuity has been broken, and I can't fix it. We're not following the original story any more! The plotlines are all screwed up in my head and I can't see more than a few hours into the future. Beyond that, it's like a dark cloud hanging over my brain and I know it's not going to turn out well."_

"Way to be a shining beacon of optimism, Chuck." Dead says dryly.

"_Don't you see, Dean? It's different now!"_ Chuck's voice is panicked. _"Before, you died hundreds of times and I just wrote you back because I knew how the story would end and I needed you there. You, Sam, and heck I wrote back in Castiel even though I'd originally planned him to die for good, just because I'd grown to like the guy. Not this time, though. I don't know the ending, which means you could die for good at any time. You or Sam! It's like God abandoned us once we stopped following the Supernatural plotline, leaving the world to spiral into the apocalypse. No more protagonist powers. No more happy ending, just a big black The End."_

"Alright. I have no more time to listen to your tortured artist moping; I have a meeting to be at. So you say we should head for Pestilence, right?"

"_It's your best shot. I'll let you know if I see any other plotholes you guys can exploit."_

"Bye, then."

"_Good luck."_

Dean hangs up and runs off after his brother.

At the impromptu meeting in the town library, Sam and Dean are thanked and wished well, but the townspeople have come to the conclusion that they can survive alone now the nest has been taken out. Last night there were no raids, a sign that showed the croats were probably either gone for good from this area or at least diminished enough in number to make taking care of them a breeze.

They're given a full tank of gas plus some extra 5-gallon containers of the stuff to put in the boot in case they can't find anywhere else to fill up. Prices have skyrocketed since all international trade and travel was cut off to prevent disease transmission, leaving America cut off from its cheap oil supplies. And where they're going, heading straight for the thickest area of infection, money itself has lost all value.

People wave at them and cheer as the Impala maneuvers through the crowds, everyone there with smiles on their faces and a belief that maybe things will get better. It warms Sam's heart to see how humanity is capable of banding together like this in the face of even the direst threats, and how altruism wins out in the worst of circumstances. Lucifer is wrong, and the new found knowledge of that has him giddy all the way out of town.

"What'cha smilin' about, Sammy?"

"Just thought of a funny joke. Lawyer thing. You wouldn't get the reference."


End file.
